Not The Most Popular Girl
by MonadoPurge
Summary: Blake didn't even want to take woodworking. Neither did Yang. But there they were, forced to work on a major project together. But it isn't all bad, right? [Highschool AU, Bumbleby, Open-Ideas, Title Subject To Change]
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Wow, I was not expecting to be back so soon or have any ideas on what to write a Bumbleby fic on. I'm happy I got this done though, and rather quickly, I wasn't expecting this to be out for another two days. I've been working on a much larger fic containing an OC team, but I've been really hesitant about the existence of an OC team story and how well it'll be received or how much interest people will have in it, it's easier just to make a fic about already existing characters and my OTP.**_

 _ **I do have to say that unfortunately this fic is nowhere near complete at the time of posting this. I pretty much just completed this chapter and decided to post it. I'm not really sure where I want this to go and unfortunately that will lead to some slow updates at times. Unfortunately, being a student doesn't really help with that, there will be schoolwork I'll have to do and I hope I can balance these properly. I do want to reassure you that I'll try my best because I hate it when other writers have such good fics and leave them abandoned. If worst-case scenario comes, I'll create a finale chapter. I won't leave this abandoned.**_

 ** _That being said, this entire fic is really undecided and I'm willing to take ideas from readers, if you have something to suggest, leave it in a review. I read them, I promise. With that, enjoy the first chapter!_**

* * *

 **Chapter One: Not The Most Popular Girl**

Blake sighed as she checked her phone for the fifth time that minute. Why did she come early to class this morning? She didn't even like this class. She sat there, absentmindedly tapping her black nails into the wooden desk, forming small dents. It was only a week into the semester, but she would come into this class early every morning, sometimes just to get away from home, sometimes to work on homework from her other classes.

So she sat there, waiting, with nothing to do. That is, until the teacher walked in, and students started to follow.

She checked her phone again. Nothing.

As the bell rang, her teacher spoke up.

"Good morning, students." he started, taking a sip of his coffee before standing and walking to the large whiteboard at the front of the class. "Today, as we discussed on Friday, I will be handing out your MTA for this term. Of course, you'll have to work with a partner. And by results from the class vote we had, you may choose your partners, as long as you actually get your projects done. Get into groups of two and write your names down on the board."

Blake sighed, her neutral expression quickly shifting into a frown. She knew it'd be hard, even impossible to find a partner for this project. She looked around her, watching groups of friends divide up into two, the classroom growing louder, as the groups fought over their friends, and partners dragged each other up to the board to write their names.

Blake Belladonna was not the most popular girl at school, far from it. She wasn't like anyone she had seen in the halls. Not like the one white-haired girl she had seen, walking around in expensive clothing, happily chatting away with the other girl she'd always be with, and certainly not like that one blonde girl in her class, loud, full of energy, and surrounded by all her friends, always coming late to class and getting scolded.

"Miss Xiao Long, late again, I see."

Kind of like that. Blake turned her head to the door to see the girl casually walk in and take her usual seat near the back, before shooting a response back.

"Maybe if your class was worth a damn, I'd show up on time."

A few chuckles were heard from the back, Blake and her teacher rolling their eyes almost in sync, Blake then turning around in her seat to follow the girl as she slid her bag off her shoulder and opened it up, pulling out a yellow binder. She looked up and gave Blake a wink, and the raven-haired girl turned around. The last thing Blake wanted to do was encourage her, she thought. The last person she wanted to be involved with was this delinquent.

"Well…" the teacher ignoring the response, spoke up. "Find yourself a partner for your MTA."

She groaned audibly and rose from her seat, walking over to groups of people to ask for partners. Who wouldn't want to work with her? It didn't matter that she was late.

"Ren? Nora? You guys got a partner?"

Nora shook her head. "Sorry, we're working together."

She moved on. "Pyrrha, wanna work together?"

Pyrrha turned around and pointed a thumb behind her. "Sorry, I'm working with Weiss on this one."

Group after group turning her down, she returned to her seat and slumped, her head in her hands, and began to complain.

"Ugh, why did Rubes have to take metalworking?! If she was here, I'd team up with her and be better than all of you!"

Her teacher took another sip of his coffee before speaking again. "Am I to assume you have no partner then, Miss Xiao Long?"

She banged a fist on her desk. "Ugh, fine! Yes!"

"Well, according to this, the class has an even amount of people in it. Who here doesn't have a partner and would be willing to work with Miss Xiao Long?"

Blake looked around, groups of names on the board and no one raising a hand. She sighed, she should have expected to be the last one paired, and unfortunately it seemed like she had to bite the bullet on this one. She raised her hand.

"Wonderful. Miss Xiao Long, you can work with Miss Belladonna. Move your things, and you can start discussing your project."

Blake sighed, putting her book away back into her bag, and pulling out her binder, opening it up to a fresh sheet of paper, and raising her head to see a pair of lilac eyes staring at her.

"…U-Ummm…" Blake began, before being cut off by her partner.

"What's your name, kitten?" She asked, smiling.

…Kitten? Blake blushed, before throwing out a response hastily. "Uhh… Blake…"

"Blake's a nice name." She nodded. "Well, Blake, I'm Yang."

"It's nice to meet you, Yang." Blake looked back down at her binder, before raising her head back up, and looking at her partner again.

"Did you call me kitten?"

Yang turned around from the window. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Why?"

Blake looked at the blonde, rather confused. "Yang, I'm not a cat."

Yang smirked. "You're cute enough to be one. Plus, it looks like you could hide some pretty nice cat ears under that bow of yours." She raised her hand to Blake's head and playfully flicked at the black ribbon resting on top.

Blake blushed slightly, quickly pulling her head down to her binder, hoping the blonde didn't notice how well her flirting had been working. "Ummm… s-so what do you want to make? We could make something like a table, or a cabinet, or-"

Yang cut her off. "I was thinking something like a box, actually. I don't know, I like large chests."

Blake looked back up at her partner once again. "Was that a joke, or an actual suggestion?"

Yang shrugged. "Well, would you want to make one?"

Blake wrote the idea down. "I'd be okay with that."

* * *

 _ **My own writing makes me laugh sometimes, I thought the "large chests" joke was brilliant. I don't know what to think of myself after that.**_

 ** _I think High School AUs or really any kind of modern AU is really cool, especially for RWBY. Seeing as how the characters already technically do go to a school, it's a little easier to follow, but I really enjoy re-writing how the characters meet each other._** ** _I have such a soft spot for any kind of AU, pretty much._**

 ** _I wanna give more shoutouts to all the writers whose fics inspired this one. Notably LizInABlizzard, Sachiel21, and FawkesTP, I've enjoyed reading your fics and eagerly await more chapters._**

 ** _I want to thank most of my friends who will be reading this, either because I bother you by sending this link twenty times, or by you checking my forums signature and seeing this has been added._**

 ** _Once again, this story is totally open, I'm willing to take ideas either by reviews or Private Messaging (I didn't even know this site had it)._**

 ** _Please, tell me what you think. Writers can't get better without critique, write me a review if you enjoyed this. From praise to hate, anything that can make me better brightens my day._**

 ** _Cheers!_**


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: I'm really happy with myself that I got this chapter done really quickly, I actually have a large page of notes that I planned to be this chapter, but after writing about 1200 words just out of the first 46 in that page, I think what I actually planned to be "Chapter Two" will probably end up being something crazy like "Chapters Two to Five", which will all take place in the same day (if you're concerned about putting a timestamp on things.)**_

 _ **I'm so happy you guys enjoy this, we've gone up to 12 follows and 8 faves in just four days, that's incredible to me, almost as much as my White Rose fic, which has been up for over a month now! Hopefully you'll continue to love what I continue to write just as much!**_

 ** _I think I just got lucky in terms of schoolwork, it doesn't seem to be affecting my amount of time I have to write at all, sleep is really just the biggest hindrance on time as far as I'm aware._**

 ** _That will hopefully mean more frequent updates, which means less sadness and more Bumblebee! Hooray!~_**

 ** _Enjoy!_**

* * *

 **Chapter Two: The Perfect Plan**

It was an interesting week for Blake. She got comfortable in her new classes, started talking to people, and even had a couple short chats with that white-haired girl she saw sometimes. Turns out her name was Weiss. Blake applauded herself for going out of her way to talk to people, she wasn't very social at her old school and smiled at the fact that she was starting to talk to others. But for Blake, starting to work with her new partner was the most interesting part of her week.

It would always be the same, she'd walk in early, fill out some homework or read a few pages of her book, the bell would ring, students filed in, and she'd wait another ten minutes for Yang.

She didn't expect anything to be different on Friday, though.

Blake looked up from her book at the clock. She smiled, knowing Yang would walk in any second now, and returned to her pages. So, she waited. And waited. And waited some more.

 _Something's not right,_ she thought after five minutes. _Yang's late, but she's never this late. Is she even coming to class today?_ She sighed and went back to her book, knowing she couldn't begin with her partner, but her heart slowly filling with worry.

And that's when she heard the loud slam of a door, and looked up to see a sweaty, panting Yang, her face dirtied and her hands enveloped in gloves, walking to occupy the desk beside her.

"Good morning." Blake began, as her partner took her seat. "What beat you up?"

Yang looked over at her partner, her face in disbelief and her forearm running across her forehead, clearing it of sweat. "What, are you kidding me?" She stopped to catch her breath. "No one beats the shit outta Yang Xiao Long!"

Blake rolled her eyes, a smile forming on her face, as her eyes shifted back to the notes in her binder. "So, did you bring the materials we need?"

Yang shook her head, even though her partner wasn't looking. "No, but I got a better plan."

Blake raised her head and glared. "Yeah, and what's this plan?"

Yang gulped, a shock of guilt passing through her. "Uhhh… well…" She composed herself rather quickly, either that or faked it incredibly well. "I was thinking we could head to my place after class. Trust me, it's the perfect plan."

Blake's glare lifted as she raised an eyebrow. "And how's-"

Yang cut her off. "Trust me, kitten. It's perfect. So, you in or not?"

Blake sighed. She couldn't win an argument with her. "Alright, fine. We'll meet here after the last period."

"Yes!" Yang's fist shot into the air.

Blake laughed. "Alright, now that you're here, we can actually get started."

The two girls lowered their heads towards the black binder and wrote ideas, tossing suggestions to each other. Maybe Blake didn't want to take this class at first, but now, things may just be different. The bell rang, and the two packed up their stuff, and waved each other goodbye, walking off to their next classes.

 _It looks like this week's getting more interesting,_ Blake thought. _Maybe I could get used to this._

* * *

"Anyways, that's most of the story," Weiss continued, as she exited the classroom with Blake. "I can tell you the rest tomorrow, if you'd like."

Blake nodded. "Sure, I'd like that."

Weiss smiled and waved, as the two separated from the hall outside their classroom, Blake heading to her locker to put her textbooks away before meeting Yang.

As she approached the locker, she set her bag down at her feet and spun the dial, repeating her combination to herself in her thoughts. _Twice to the right, fifty-eight. Once to the left, twenty-three. Now spin right to-_

"Hey Blake!"

She sighed as her train of thought was thrown off course, turning around to see that familiar short head of blonde hair, and its owner's shirt collar, practically unbuttoned.

"Sun, I swear, if it weren't for this school uniform you'd be practically walking around this place without a shirt, wouldn't you?"

Sun laughed and shook his head. "No, it's too cold for that. Maybe next month."

Blake held back her laughter. She already encouraged one delinquent, she didn't want to encourage another. Blocking Sun out, she began to spin the dial again. _Twice to the right, fifty-eight. Once to the left, twenty-three. Now spin right to fourty-five, and…_ Blake pulled down, unlocking the padlock, and attempted to pull the locker open. It wouldn't budge.

"-So, what do you say?"

Blake blinked, looking back at Sun. Clearly this was important, but she missed it trying to tone him out.

"I'm sorry, what did you ask me?"

Sun took a step forward, reaching his hand out to pull open Blake's locker, eventually swinging it open. "I was wondering, since there's a dance next month, you would want to go with me?"

Blake cringed at the word dance. She didn't like social events before, and even though she was opening up now, she didn't like them now. "Sorry Sun, don't even think I'm going to this one."

Sun looked at the girl in shock. "Whaddya mean? You have to go, it'll be great! Here, what if-"

"Sun. I'm not going." She put her last textbook in her locker and closed it, placing the lock back into its spot and closing it. "Look, I'll catch up with you later, I have somewhere to be." She grabbed her bag, slid it on, and walked off.

Sun eyed her for a while before finally turning around and heading off himself. _What could be so good that she would miss a dance?_

* * *

Blake opened the door to the woodworking classroom, eying one Yang Xiao Long, her body laid across the tops of two desks, her head hanging upside down from the side of the second, her large mess of blonde hair most likely right in her face.

Hearing the sound of the door opening made her quickly raise her head, looking up to see a very confused Blake looking back at her.

"And here I thought I was the late one."

Blake chuckled as Yang rolled off the desks and onto her feet, walking over to the doorway.

"Sorry, I was being bothered by Sun."

"Who?" Yang mumbled, almost stumbling, trying her best to recover from the blood rush to her head.

"I guess you don't have classes with him, he's the guy who never buttons up his shirt and asked me to the dance next month."

Blake could've sworn she saw Yang's face shift to a frown, but wasn't sure if it was sincere or just her trying (and failing) to recover quickly.

"Oh. Well, what'd ya say?"

Blake placed her hand on Yang's shoulder, attempting to keep her upright. "Well, I told him I wasn't interesting because I wasn't going."

Yang shrugged. "Fair enough." She adjusted her bag on the other shoulder. "Well, now that you're here, should we get going?"

Blake nodded, and the two of them were on their way, Yang still trying to shake the dizziness, and Blake laughing at her efforts.

* * *

 ** _"Not The Most Popular Girl" now contains 100% more Sun Wukong! And I don't know how to feel about that!_**

 ** _I've noticed a lot of people seem to include Sun as a force preventing Bumblebee from happening, so I wanted to have him be lighter, more of an annoyance and use him to kind of open up the door to (potentially) Bicurious Blake! Yay!_**

 ** _I probably could have had the dance be a thing last chapter, and it feels a bit weird having it suddenly brought up now, but the idea just suddenly came to me while writing that conversation and I just rolled with it, and decided "Why not, reference the best Bumblebee episode in canon?"_**

 ** _As always, please, tell me what you think. Writers can't get better without critique, write me a review if you enjoyed this. From praise to hate, anything that can make me better brightens my day._**

 ** _Cheers!_**


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: Wow. I am not complaining about being able to give frequent, regular updates at all. Even if it's a little bit of work keeping up with schedule, this is one of the biggest things I've wanted to work on ever since I started. Seriously, all of the great love this fic has been getting has really been keeping me going, I appreciate so much of it and it's just been the best to always wake up every morning to see e-mails of people following or faving this.**_

 _ **So yeah. I've been working really hard on this and I already have plans for really nice scenes between the bees, but for now, I'll just hype that up and continue building up on them! Mwahaha!**_

 _ **Let it be known that Chapters Two and Three so far have been made from 126 out of the 496 words of notes I currently have saved. Expect more (hopefully) as regularly and frequently as this. But for now, new chapter!**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter Three: Strawberry**

Blake smiled, watching her partner's expressive hand motions as she explained the rest of her day, occasionally nodding when she'd look over at her and stop her story to ask "You still following me?"

It was fun to listen to Yang go on about how she teased Ruby and Weiss during their lunch break or almost started a class war over which character in The Dust Chronicles was better in her English class. Blake found herself laughing quite a bit whenever she talked to the blonde.

"Aww man, good times." Yang smiled, recalling one of the stories she had told about one of her classmates. "He actually asked me to the dance today."

A wave of curiosity hit Blake. "What did you say?"

Yang shrugged. "Told him I wasn't interested. Dunno, lots of people have been asking, but I don't like most of them."

Blake went from curious to confused. Yang got asked multiple times to a dance and turned all of them down? "How many people have asked you?" The words slipped out of her mouth before she realized she probably shouldn't have asked.

Her partner didn't seem shocked at all by the question. "Think it's seven guys at this point?"

Blake stopped. "Seven guys asked you to the dance? Did you say no to all of them?!"

Yang scratched the back of her neck with her hand. "C'mon, kitten, don't make me feel guilty about it!"

Blake blushed, hiding her face in her hands, full of embarrassment. "Sorry, let's… let's keep walking." She uncovered her face to see lilac staring into her eyes.

Yang laughed. "You're so much fun to tease!" Blake rolled her eyes, a smile forming on her face, before her arm was grabbed and playfully pulled in one direction. "Well, we're here!" She dragged her partner up the stairs to the front door and slid her key in and pushed open the door, inviting Blake in, and locking the door after them.

"Yaaaaaang! You're laaaate!" The blonde barely had any time to respond before a smaller girl slid down the railing of the stairs, launching herself at a high speed into the blonde's arms, pulling her into a hug.

"Yeah, sorry Sis. I was just waiting for someone." The smaller girl pulled away from her sister to look at the girl next to her. Blake blinked, noticing they were talking about her, and simply waved at the girl.

"This is Blake? She's exactly like you described her." Yang's sister eyed Blake up and down like some kind of trophy. Blake opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the girl's laugh.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Anyways, Blake, meet Ruby, my younger sister!" Blake was finally able to get a good look at her, a large grin on her somewhat small face, framed almost perfectly with her black hair, fading to red near the tips. The hair was complimented by a long, crimson cape, which seemed to go well with the school uniform she had presumably been too lazy to change out of, even on a Friday afternoon. Blake liked her, even for as loud as she imagined this household could get between the two girls, she certainly seemed creative and bubbly, but a different shade than Yang. Maybe more of a Strawberry to Yang's Sunrise.

Blake smiled. "Nice to meet you, Ruby." There were questions to ask her, but she decided to not ask them now, maybe when she wasn't being brought so quickly by Yang.

The blonde turned to her partner. "Blake, you stay here and talk with Ruby, I've got something I have to do real quick." She ran off down the hall and into what seemed to be a larger room around the corner from the end of the hall.

Blake blinked, mainly out of confusion. It was weird to not be referred to as 'Kitten' by her partner, and especially being just left in a social introduction with that partner's sister. Try as she might, she'd never get a good grip on Yang. She decided the best place to start was to look around. Hopefully she didn't have to start conversations with Ruby, and risk them becoming awkward and ruining a first impression. She started down the hall, the other direction from Yang.

"Down here's the bathroom to your left, and Yang's room to the right." Ruby chimed in, acting as some sort of tour guide in response to Blake's curiosity.

Blake stopped, now knowing what the rooms were, and focused more on the small things, the perfect amount of lighting, the small designs at the bottoms of the walls, the perfect pale yellow said walls were painted in… Blake sighed, contently. She hadn't even been in here for a decent amount of time, yet she felt perfectly comfortable. This house seemed like something out of movies. Turning to her right hip and opening her bag, she pulled out a small notebook and a pen, and began quickly writing ideas down.

"What're you doing?" Blake almost turned around, stopped by the curious Ruby's head almost perched on her shoulder. She twirled the pen around in her fingers, trying to think of a convincing answer to give, before finally throwing one out.

"Taking notes for an English project."

The smaller girl frowned. Seemed more exciting than just a boring old school project. She lowered her head from the raven-haired girl's shoulder and walked down the hall the other direction.

"Ruby?" Blake began. She felt it was a better time to ask, now that the girl's sister was gone.

A head of black and red popped out from behind the corner. "Yeah Blake? What's up?"

"Yang mentioned her sister who took metalworking this semester, she meant you, right?"

Ruby smiled. "Yup! Gotta take an elective, so I chose the best one. Not to mention I'm kind of a geek with that stuff."

Blake tapped the end of her pen to her chin. "But you seem rather young to be in the same grade as us, Metalworking isn't available until Grade 11."

The girl's smile grew into a grin. "Yup! I was able to get in a couple years early due to good teacher recommendations or something. I dunno, they didn't really tell me, I'm just happy I got in!"

Blake slipped the lid back onto the tip of her pen and placed it back into the right pocket of her bag. "Wait, so if Yang and I are working on this, what are you working on?"

Ruby giggled. "Well, I'm actually currently working on a sniper rifle."

Blake took a step back. "You're building a gun?!"

The shorter girl just giggled harder. "Well, it's not really a working rifle, more like a replica. But I have to build something with moving parts and thought a replica gun would be a good example."

Blake relaxed, sighing of relief internally. "That's really neat, actually. I'd love to see it sometime."

Ruby nodded. "Yeah, if you want to take a look, it's actually in the worksh-"

"Yo Rubes!" She looked over her shoulder, being cut off by her older sister. "Could you bring Blake out here for me?"

Blake sighed, her face forming a larger smile. _What could she have planned?_ She thought, led into the larger room by Ruby.

* * *

 ** _I may or may not have written in Ruby just to give her that one scene about building a rifle, although I've heard people really like the idea of Ruby taking Metalworking and I wanted to do something a little above that, especially with how much the FNDM really seems to love weapons nerd Ruby._**

 ** _I probably had to think harder about how to reference Strawberry Sunrise than I should have. But I think it ended up sounding really cute, at the very least._**

 ** _I might be slipping on how to write flirty Yang though, believe me, I'm trying, I'm just really not the best with that. But I made this fic and it will continue to be good, dammit!_**

 ** _As always, please, tell me what you think. Writers can't get better without critique, write me a review if you enjoyed this. From praise to hate, anything that can make me better brightens my day._**

 ** _Cheers!_**


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: Wow, this took quite a bit of time to get out. I'm sorry it took so long, I was having a lot of trouble writing certain scenes in this chapter, but I wanted to make this one longer to make up for it taking so long. I've believed that having more frequent, shorter updates is better than having rare, long updates, but it all falls apart if I stop uploading frequently.**_

 _ **I've now started uploading my writing on , where you can find me under the name VioletValkyrie, so I'm uploading this chapter in two places at the same time.**_

 _ **My wonderful long page of notes has now been written down to 224 out of 496 words, so I'm slowly getting to the point where I have to think of more things to write.**_

 _ **Sorry for the wait!**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

* * *

 **Chapter Four: Maybe I Was Wrong**

Blake was shocked as she entered the large room, almost as if she was the protagonist in one of the books she'd been reading. Imagining herself stepping into the large ballroom from the quiet halls of the castle, coming face to face with the handsome prince she had searched across the entire country for.

She shook herself and laughed internally, now realizing she had been led into her partner's living room by her loud, energetic sister, and coming face to face with the blonde herself.

"Sorry for the wait, Blake. Anyways, I can show you around our place if you want?" Yang smiled.

Blake nodded in response. "I'd love that. I'm… not really used to seeing rooms this large."

The blonde raised an eyebrow and smirked at her partner. "Don't live in a mansion, Kitten? Could've fooled me, you seem like the type." She then shifted her gaze upwards, seemingly in thought, then back to her again. "No, wait. Maybe a castle. What do you think?"

Her partner laughed. "I don't think so. An apartment's a lot different from either of those."

Yang gestured behind her, and the two girls walked through the room, entering others, and walking down the hall, before coming to a stop at the staircase.

"Anyways, that's it for the first floor. There's more upstairs, although it's-"

"Yang!"

Yang shrieked, quickly spinning around, her large blonde mess almost whipping the other girl in the face, stopping at the sight of a grown man hunched over, hands on his knees, laughing.

"Dad! Don't scare me like that!"

His laughing eventually slowed and came to a stop. "Sorry, I had to."

The blonde pouted. "No, you really didn't, you know."

He smiled and rolled his eyes, placing a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Anyways, I wanted to tell you a letter came for you in the mail." He looked over to see a head of black hair next to his daughter's gold.

"Umm… Nice to meet you." Blake waved, politely, although her look not hiding the confusion placed quickly in front of her.

Yang ran a hand through her hair. "Blake, this is my dad, Taiyang." She gestured her hand from her partner to her father, and then back. "Dad, this is my woodworking partner, Blake."

Tai grinned. "Good to finally meet you, Blake. I've heard a bit about you from Yang."

Blake looked over at her partner, the other girl rolling her eyes.

He flashed another smile at the two. "Well, I'll be in my room if either of you need me, don't hesitate to ask if you need anything."

The blonde looked back at her partner and shrugged. "So, do you wanna see the yard?"

"Sure." Blake smiled. The two walked back into the living room, Yang unlocking the door at the back.

"Your father seems nice."

Yang chuckled a bit. "Yeah, he's pretty cool."

Blake stepped out from the living room and into the yard, taking a look around. It wasn't giant by any means, but still a nice size, mainly of empty space filled only with grass, although with a tree in one of the corners, and a large shack in another. She breathed in, exhaling a long sigh as the fresh air entered her lungs.

"You have a rope swing?" She asked, walking slowly towards the tree, pointing to the swing hanging from a branch a few feet above the ground.

Yang nodded, although her partner couldn't see from behind. "Yeah, Ruby and I used to play on it a bunch when we were kids. We'd compete to see who could swing higher. I always won."

The two laughed, and Blake continued walking around the yard, before her eyes widened and she jumped backwards with a yelp, almost tripping over her own feet.

There was an excited woof as a small gray dog ran circles around Blake's legs.

"Y-Yang! You didn't tell me you had a dog! Get it off me!"

Yang ran over from the door, chuckling to herself. "Zwei, what did I say? Blake is not a chew toy!" She picked up Zwei and pet him on the head. He responded with a couple barks and began to lick Yang's face. She looked over at Blake, extending her arms to allow her to take the dog in her own arms. Blake took a step back and shook her head, gaining another eyeroll from her partner. "Alright, I'll give him to Ruby then."

She nodded and watched her partner go back inside the house, taking a seat on the rope swing and looking up into the sky. It had been quite a while since she had visited a friend's house, she couldn't even remember the name of the last person who had invited her over. She leaned back on the small swing, relying on it to hold her airborne from her hips as her upper body leaned over the edge. It was strange, Blake thought. She never expected herself to end up making friends at this new school, especially so quickly. She never wanted to have to work with anyone else for her classes and hoped she could just get by going to classes quietly, never having to involve herself with any people or the drama that came with them. But something about being around Yang was so warming. They had just started to get to know each other, but Yang was so friendly and inviting, positive and uplifting, funny and cheerful. Her thoughts were stopped by the blonde approaching the swing. She quickly raised her head, now understanding Yang's previous situation after having her head hanging from her desk earlier.

"You doing okay, Kitten? You look like you're blushing, need some water or something?"

Blake did her best to smile back at the look of genuine concern facing her. "Yeah, water would be great." Yang smiled and made her way back inside, coming back out quickly, two bottles of water in hand, passing one to her partner and opening hers, taking a drink.

"Alright, take a drink and follow me, there's something I wanna show you." Blake twisted the cap off and took her drink, reaching for her partner's now extended arm to pull her up, and the two walked across the yard to the shack.

Yang slid a small key into the hole of the padlock, twisting it and pulling the lock off the door, opening it and stepping into the dark shed. Blake watched as she took more steps before reaching for the light switch and flipping it on. She adjusted her eyes to the new amount of light and finally stepped in, taking a look around and seeing a long desk to her right, occupied by two drills and a small box of bits, one large and one small drill, coloured black and yellow. Next to the drills were a small collection of different screwdrivers, and a metal tin filled with different sizes and colours of screws.

"You have an entire workshop in your yard?"

Yang spun around, a long piece of wood in her arms. "Yeah, Dad makes a bunch of stuff like this."

"I'm surprised you didn't want to take this class if you have all these materials to work with."

Yang shifted her grip to the bottom of the wood to scratch the back of her neck with her other hand. "Nah, not really. Ruby's more like that. I guess I just thought taking woodworking would be easier?"

Blake nodded. She knew she'd be lying if she said she didn't choose to take woodworking because it seemed like one of the easier mandatory electives.

Yang set down the piece of wood and walked back around to the front of the workshop, grabbing her bag and a pair of goggles hanging next to the door, sliding the bag across the floor to the other end of the desk and walking back over, opening her binder out of the bag and placing it on the desk, removing the makeshift blueprints on lined paper they had made in class and placing them next to the binder and the pair of saw blades at the other end of the desk.

She slipped the goggles around her head and over her eyes and looked back over to her partner. "I'll cut the pieces to size, and you drill the holes for the screws in the corners, alright?"

Blake grabbed the smaller of the drills and grabbed a bit from the box and placed it in. "Alright."

The small workshop was filled with the loud sounds of the saw cutting its way through piece after piece of wood, as Yang ran the pieces through the blade, and passed them to Blake, drilling holes halfway into the ends.

The dark-haired of the girls looked to her side to see her partner carefully cutting through more pieces, and allowed her thoughts to be heard in the one place they could, in her head.

 _Maybe I was wrong about you,_ Blake thought. _You've been really determined, and I've been really enjoying this. You've been working really hard, but you still found time to make me laugh and smile all day when I'm around… I'm really glad I met you, Yang._

* * *

 _ **So I know I did promise Tai in this chapter and I hope I did well with him, even with how little he shows up, he'll show up more of course, but as a start, I hope I didn't mess up with him.**_

 _ **My Flirty Yang is definitely slipping, I probably need work on that. I've never been the most flirtatious person out there, but I'll do my best.**_

 _ **I apologize if this chapter doesn't seem to be as good as the previous ones, and if it seems like I extended the length of the chapter to compromise for that. I really don't have an excuse for it. But maybe I'm just stressing over nothing? Please, let me know what you thought of it.**_

 ** _As always, please, tell me what you think. Writers can't get better without critique, write me a review if you enjoyed this. From praise to hate, anything that can make me better brightens my day._**

 ** _Cheers!_**


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